Monday, April 8, 2013

At the Detroit Motor Show EDAG, the Germany-based engineering and Design
company, will exhibit a concept car based on the Pontiac Solstice.

The
main feature is an original hard top that deeply influences the vehicle
exterior appearance, creating a modern wagon-effect, in some ways
similar to the Bmw Z3 Coupé and the recent Audi Shooting Brake Concept.

The special roof replaces the standard cloth top which disappears under a flap in the back when retracted.

According
to EDAG, the Solstice is inspired by the Pontiac Safari station wagons
of the 1950's and 1960's and represents a "contemporary variant of a
sports estate".

Prior to the GTO reintroduction in 2004, Pontiac
showcased a more extreme-looking concept in 1999, with blocky styling
far removed from the Holden Monaro body used in the current GTO model.

While
the concept car sported 19-inch wheels in the front and 20-inch wheels
in the rear, the car had no engine or drivetrain to power them, and was
strictly a design-concept piece.

The
concept GTO pays homage to Pontiac's muscle car of the 1960's and 70's.
GTO styling cues include a side profile with hints of the famous "Coke
bottle" shape introduced on mid- to late-60's' models. The rear quarter
windows are reminiscent of 1968-69 GTOs. A hood-mounted tachometer pod
like the one that first appeared in 1967 is part of the package.
However, the large, 19-inch-diameter front wheels, 20-inch rear wheels,
and ultra-low profile, 40-series tires are much different from the
14-inch bias-ply US Royal Red Line tires included in the original GTO
option package. The car's computer-generated interior uses high-tech
materials such as aluminum, and the center section of the dashboard is
an extension of the hood and painted to match.

C1 to C10 - Coccinelle* or "Goutte d'eau"**
*Beetle (Ladybug), **Drop of water in French.

In the early fifties, Citroën's range comprised two models - the 2 CV and the Traction, shortly to be replaced by the DS.
Work was underway to plug this gap - there were two projects, one
resulted in the Ami 6 while the other, regrettably was never launched.

In 1953, André Lefèbvre thought to develop a vehicle that would by more
modern and more compact than the 2CV and to this end, the C range of
prototypes were developed, ranging from C1 in 1955 through to C10 in
1956.

The C10 was a front wheel drive design (using the A Series
flat twin), housed in an ultra lightweight (382 kg), aerodynamic body
with DS style wide front track and narrow rear track. Shaped like a drop
of water - tapering in all three planes towards the rear and employing
aircraft construction techniques to ensure low weight, it looked not
unlike a flattened, widened Messerschmitt bubble car,
even down to the aircraft canopy glasshouse. The decision was taken to
proceed with the "conventional" looking Ami 6. The Ami 6 was always
viewed as a temporary stopgap solution to the chasm between the 2 CV and
the DS - a chasm that was not really filled until the launch of the GS.
Having rejected the Cocinelle, work started on the C 60 project to fill
this gap.

X may be the Roman numeral for ten, but in this instance, it almost
stands for "four." Had this small, two-door Hummer concept been built,
it would have reached production as the H4, and it would have directly
competed against the Jeep Wrangler (which, ironically, shares a sizable
portion of its lineage with the Hummer brand) and the Toyota FJ Cruiser.

Hotness then (1-10): 9

The HX was everything we wanted a new Hummer to be: small, stylish,
muscular, and capable of tackling the most challenging backwoods trails.

Hotness now (1-10): 9

It's still everything we still want a new Hummer to be: small, stylish, muscular, et cetera. The H3 and H3T
proved capable of holding their own off-road (especially when compared
to the bloated H2), but the HX/H4 would have been even easier to thread
between trees, boulders, sherpas, and other off-road obstacles.

Could it have saved the brand?

The jury's still out on this one. Although a sizable core of Hummer
loyalists purchased the vehicles for their off-road prowess, the advent
of the H2 and H3 helped shift that demographic to suburbanite soccer
moms. True off-roader may pine for a smaller Hummer that can tackle the
Rubicon as well as any Wrangler, but we doubt the HX would have
resonated with those looking for a station wagon with a
stratospherically high seating position.

The Rumpler Tropfenwagen was a odd yet advanced car developed by Austrian
engineer Edmund Rumpler. Rumpler had worked primarily as a designer of
airplanes, when in 1921 he introduced his Tropfenwagen at the Berlin
Auto Show. That car is historically credited as being the first truly
and purposely designed streamline car (predating the Chrysler Airflow
and Tatra T107 from Czechoslovakia). Oddly enough, the car was designed
to cut wind resistance vertically, not horizontally.

This
mid-engined mechanical marvel, the product of Rumpler’s wartime aviation
experience, featured a W6 engine with three banks of paired cylinders,
all working on a common crankshaft. Winglets, a teardrop-shaped cabin
and body, and that cycloptic center headlight, somehow conspired to
produce a super-slippery drag coefficient of .28 - a reading that is
quite low even by today’s standards. As many as 80 Rumplers were made,
including two that were featured and then set aflame in the German
silent science fiction film “Metropolis” (1927). Today, only two Rumpler
Tropfenwagen examples are known to exist.
Source: Internet